There’s a place I keep seeing when I close my eyes — a quiet stretch of Alberta’s foothills where the world exhales. The mountains rise like guardians in the distance, their snowcaps glowing under a lazy sun. Down below, nestled against the glassy surface of a lake, sits a cabin that could only have been dreamed into existence.
It’s built from thick, honeyed timbers that hold the scent of pine and smoke. A wide veranda wraps around it, the kind that invites slow mornings and long nights — where you can lean against the railing with a mug of coffee or a glass of wine and watch the mist drift off the water. Every board creaks with character, every knot in the wood tells its own story.
Inside, the air hums with warmth from a fireplace so massive it could swallow the chill of a Canadian winter whole. Stone from the nearby river forms its base; flames crackle and dance like they’re alive. A bearskin rug stretches in front of it, and the leather couch seems to whisper an invitation to sink in, to stay a while.
The cabin glows — not from light fixtures, but from the way evening sunlight pours through the big west-facing windows. Everything it touches turns golden. There’s music playing softly — maybe something old and slow — and the scent of cedar mingles with a hint of perfume and smoke from the hearth.
Outside, the lake mirrors the mountains and the sky, blurring the line between real and reflection. The water laps against the dock as if breathing with you. Sometimes the moon rises early, silver and full, spilling light over everything — the veranda, the glass, the curve of someone’s shoulder in the firelight.
This isn’t just a dream of a cabin. It’s a dream of belonging — of two people tangled in blankets while snow drifts quietly outside, of laughter echoing against wooden walls, of silence so deep it feels sacred. It’s where the rush of life finally fades into a slow, steady rhythm — heartbeats, crackling logs, the whisper of wind through the spruce.
And maybe, if the dream ever finds its way into reality, that cabin on the lake will be more than a vision. It will be the place where love and wilderness meet — raw, untamed, and endlessly alive.